Appam at Indique

Thursday was Ladies Night at All Fired Up in Cleveland Park, so a few friends and I spent the evening painting, drinking wine (it’s BYOB), and chatting.

But all that painting had us hungry, and my friend was craving Indian food, so we headed across the street to Indique. There was something on the menu that I’d never tried before: appam.

Their menu says that they are “hoppers, soft centered spongy rice breads made of fermented rice. It is traditionally served with Ishtew (Stew) made with coconut milk and meat or vegetables.”

I confirmed with the waiter that they were gluten free, and ordered one with vegetable stew. I’m always up for trying something new!

When it first arrived at the table, I was a little surprised at how it looked. Kind of like a wet thin frisbee. Ok, that doesn’t sound that appetizing, but it was just flatter than I expected.

The vegetable stew had peas, potatoes,and onions in it with a coconut milk/curry broth. If I could have done it over though, I would have ordered something more flavorful like Bringal Bartha to go with it, since the appam itself doesn’t have a ton of flavor.

The best part of the bread was the middle, where it had a bit of a crust on it, and was thicker than the outside. The texture was like a thin, spongy tortilla. Not sure if I would say that you have to run out and try it, but it was nice to be able to have something more than just rice. Especially when there’s all of that delicious smelling garlic naan around the restaurant.

Or you can try to make them yourself, using this recipe from Gluten-Free Cat. She is way more dedicated than I am to trying new recipes. I stop even reading after the first direction is “soak raw rice for three hours”.

3 responses to “Appam at Indique”

Thanks for mentioning my post, Anna! I laughed out loud when I read your comment “I stop even reading after the first direction is ‘soak raw rice for three hours’”. I felt the same way after reading the challenge! I promise, despite the rice soaking, and yeast rising, it’s easy! 100% easier than homemade bread. Give it a try! 🙂

I love Indique and eat there frequently as they are wonderful with gluten-free. I would ask again about the appam. I used to eat it, but when I double checked its gluten-content recently, the waiter revealed that there actually is a bit of wheat in the recipe. Language barrier? Miss-communication? Not sure, but worth double checking.